In finally putting to bed one of the largest misconceptions that continues to haunt both the franchise and the actor himself, the mother of Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace star Jake Lloyd has confirmed that her son’s exit from acting was prompted not by fan bullying, but rather his a genetically pre-disposed battle with mental illness.
Read nearly any article, blog, or forum post discussing Lloyd’s short acting career from the last ten years and odds are that either the piece itself or one of its reader comments will inevitably raise the claim that the actor chose to leave Hollywood due to the fan backlash he faced thanks to his portrayal of a Young Anakin Skywalker.
This narrative gained even further traction when in 2012 Lloyd revealed that his starring as the young Jedi-turned-Sith-turned-Jedi-again had led to him being bullied by his elementary school classmates, as some fans proceeded to presume that if this negative backlash contributed to his decision to quit acting, then all negative sentiment towards his performance was to blame.
However, according to his mother Lisa, it was Lloyd’s struggles with both his previously-undiagnosed paranoid schziophrenia and a deteriorating home life situation, not Star Wars fans, that led to his exit from the silver screen.
Speaking with Scripp News’ Clayton Sandell on March 11th, Lisa asserted, “I protected him from the backlash. He was just riding his bike outside, playing with his friends. He didn’t know. He didn’t care. Everybody makes such a big deal about that. And it’s rather annoying to me because Jake was a little kid when that came out, and he didn’t really feel all that stuff because I didn’t let him online.”
“People say he quit because of Star Wars,” she continued. “Well, that’s not true. It didn’t have anything to do with Star Wars. It had more to do with our family. And we were going through a divorce,” Lisa explained. “Things were unsettled and kind of rough. And Jake didn’t seem to be having a lot of fun auditioning anymore.”
To this end, Lisa noted that while Jake still considers himself an overall fan of the franchise and Ahsoka in particular – “He loves all the new Star Wars stuff,” she told Sandell. “People think Jake hates Star Wars. He loves it.” – it’s still unlikely, though not impossible, that the Jingle All The Way star will ever choose to make a return trip to a galaxy far, far away.
“Jake loved filming Star Wars,” Lisa affirmed. “He had so much fun. I would love for him to get well enough to be able to do a little bit of something, and I’m sure he would maybe like to do that. He couldn’t at this point, but you never know how much he’s going to improve. So we’ll see.”
Drawing her time with Sandell to a close on an optimistic note, Lisa ultimately declared, “We’re in a lot better place. And we do have a lot of things to look forward to.”
“We all love Jake, and we want to be around him,” she added. “I just want him to be happy.”